The present invention relates to footwear, and more particularly to a method of making footwear utilizing 3D last printing and spray-on fabric technology.
Footwear manufacturing techniques have evolved through time, however, most are still impaired by associated labor costs and overhead. For example, most conventional footwear are constructed from a variety of components that are precisely fit and overlapped relative to one another, then stitched together by a worker to form the upper of the footwear. The stitching process is very labor intensive and time-consuming. While many footwear manufacturers have outsourced their manufacturing process overseas, to countries having significant labor forces, the minimum wage and social tax in those countries has greatly increased the cost of labor in recent years. In turn, this has increased the cost to manufacture footwear.
Many footwear utilize assemblies of components constructed from animal hides. In recent years, the animal hide market has experienced significant volatility, which has led to uncertainty in raw material costs, and resultant, notable fluctuations in footwear costs.
In addition, most conventional footwear is constructed to fit the “average” footwear sizes. Generally, footwear manufacturers produce a variety of different sizes and widths of certain footwear models, with the hope of coming close to fitting the feet of most potential purchasers. Many such footwear, however, are constructed with multiple overlays or panels that are stitched to one another, as mentioned above. These overlays, and the resultant footwear, are frequently difficult to match to the shapes of a large variety of compound curves or contours of certain feet, let alone many differently shaped feet. Thus, consumers are left to choose between footwear that may come close to their foot size and shape, but that ultimately do not provide a good or ideal fit to promote comfort, stability and protection.
In addition, most footwear is manufactured based on aesthetic models developed by the footwear manufacturer. These models may or may not be appealing to some consumers. Thus, those consumers are left to select a style of footwear that comes close to their aesthetic or fashion concerns—or to simply live with footwear designs that are unappealing to them.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in the area of footwear manufacturing to reduce labor costs and material costs, and to provide a degree of customization for the footwear consumer.